Watch out for those in the West who, terminally confused, go off on a Spiritual Search. They try this, they try that. Then the bus stops at Islam, and if they get off, and some do, it's very hard for them to get back on that bus.
For if you are confused and overwhelmed by life, the totalitarian temptation is extraordinarily strong - that is, the temptation to join a collective, which tells you what to do and what to think, and gives you a nice list of What Is Commanded and What Is Prohibited. And if you've forgotten or not yet learned a particular rule, you have only to Ask Mr. Fatwa on a thousand websites, and you will be told what to do.
And how it clears everything up, to have rules for everything. For those lost souls wandering in the universe, you get a complete guide and grid, you no longer have to think -- why, you are positively encouraged not to think. What could be better? Yours, thank god, you think, is not to reason why.
There are people who love this sort of thing.
And in the case of Colleen Renee LaRose, she gets to fabricate a special Arab name, and even wear a hijab. She's got a Cause. She's got a Reason For Being. She's someone special, and yet at the same time, she doesn't have to be anyone at all, but can subsume herself in the collective and take the orders set down more than a millennium ago.
What could be better for the colleen-renee-laroses of this world? Look at how excited Adam Gadahn is to have become Azzam Al-Amriki, and to be the special someone he is today. And to have no doubts, and no need to think for oneself. What else, in this confusing world, do you need?
Once you become a Muslim, you have laid out for you the list of what is Prohibited and what is Commanded, of whom you will love and whom you will hate. You will love fellow Muslims, you will hate all non-Muslims. Simple, and clear, and don't be confused if often those non-Muslims appear to be quite nice and generous towards you; remember, they remain non-Muslims. And if some Muslims behave in what might once have seemed to be a cruel and murderous fashion, remember they are Muslims, and acting according to the dictates of Islam, so they are not merely blameless, but admirable.
The New York Times has some piquant details, including the fact that no sooner did Colleen Renee LaRose become a Muslim -- by simply reciting a line of verse (no tests and no waiting, just like getting married in South Carolina in the pre-war days) -- than all of a sudden she had very firm views on Middle Eastern conflicts. All of a sudden, she who probably could not locate Israel on a map had become a fervent supporter of the Jihad against Israel: The "MySpace profile for a woman who refers to herself as JihadJane displays pictures of bloodshed and violence in the Middle East scrawled with messages like 'Palestine We Are With You' and 'Sympathize With Gaza.'"
Become a Muslim, and all of a sudden you have a Very Strong Opinion about things you never knew, and still do not know, a thing about. It was perhaps obvious for Jihad Jane to start with an ostentatious taking of the side of "Palestine" (i.e., supporting -- janishly -- the Jihad against Israel), but if asked what she thought of this or that conflict involving Muslims, she would now have an answer too, which would be to always and everywhere take the Muslim side. If asked what she now thought about Kashmir, you can bet that she would insist that Kashmir belonged to Pakistan, and for that matter, India belonged to its rightful owners, the Muslims (whom those "colonialist" British had removed from power), that Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the Philippines should be backed to the hilt, that the Buddhists should get out of southern Thailand and leave it to the Muslims, that Khaddafy was right to declare Jihad against Switzerland for the minaret ban, that the Christians who were hacked to death in Nigeria had it coming to them, that the black Africans in the Sudan deserved, by the millions, to die because the Sudan belongs to Islam and to the Arabs, and so on and so bloody forth.
Join today. It's the last important decision you'll ever have to make. Tomorrow Belongs To You.
The Mosque of Truth -- Motrue, in Newspeak -- was startlingly different from any other religious edifice. It was an enormous structure with a glittering gold dome, and soaring up, all around, 300 metres into the air, pointed, menacing minarets. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant arabic lettering, the three slogans of the religion:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
link for previous post:
http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/0.html
"Exclusive: Muslims' Sheep Mentality"
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5694/pub_detail.asp
At the border of [the bejeweled Box of Islam] is an eerie interface between what is inside the Box and what is outside. The face of the Box as presented to the rest of the world is one of peace and harmony, of acceptance and enlightenment. The faces looking back at the Box are of two minds: accepting or skeptical, welcoming or defiant; generally representing two sides of ‘understanding’ about the contents of the Box. One group seeing an unschooled, imagined vision with curiosity; drawn to the new and interesting, which may offer safety and community. The other group seeing a vision formed from knowledge ...
Inside the Box the rules are ancient, strict and immutable. One must abandon intellectual curiosity, the pursuits of science and the study of philosophy. ... Interpersonal relationships must be confined to the most banal and formal of customs. The interplay of male and female restricted... Prayer and ritual are required and time consuming. Submission and repetition; submission and repetition; submission and repetition.
http://civilusdefendus.wordpress.com/insights/the-box/
This article shows why Islam can be thought of as a totalitarian ideology.
What does one mean by "ideology"? One way to define it is, a way of understanding an otherwise incomprehensibly complex world by reducing everything to a limited number of manageable principles. Of course, the simpler the ideology the more frequently will it lead its adherent(s) astray. And a totalitarian ideology, one which seeks to impose itself on non-adherents, is by necessity simplistic.
Islam, in addition to being the most aggressively expansionist ideology of our time, is simple enough to appeal to the simplest people. This is why it has been so successful in much of the world.
But, for obvious reasons, Islam cannot make appreciable inroads in the West through mere proselytism (dawah). (Communism was much more threatening in this regard.) This explains the unprecedented phenomenon we are witnessing in Europe today: demographic displacement as conscious, explicit policy, exploiting both the oil weapon and Europe's self-inflicted wound.
Dear Hugh,
Your articles section at JW has not been updated since December 15, 09. Could you kindly ask Mr. Spencer or Marisol to update it so as to make it easier for your followers (who are many, including yours truly) to keep up with your hard-hitting, eye-opening and informative articles.
Regards.
Come on Hugh, don't hold back, tellus how you really feel! : )
NICE PIECE!!
From the fans of Fred Phelps to al Qaeda cheerleaders the impulse for sad folk to identify with totalitarian "ideals" is a bit scary at times.
I will make discreet inquiries.
Join today. It's the last important decision you'll ever have to make.
....................
Excellent article, Hugh.
This, from Tawfiq Hamid, from 'The Development of a Jihadist's Mind' (Thanks to Dumbledore's Army)
"During my first year of medical school [in Egypt], a Jamaah member named Muchtar Muchtar invited me to join the organization.
"Muchtar was in his fourth year, and Jamaah had given him the title amir (prince or caliph) - a designation taken from early Islamic writings that is associated with the Islamic caliphate or amir almomenin (prince of the believers).
"I accepted his invitation, and we walked together to Jamaah's mosque for noon prayers.
"On the way there Muchtar emphasized *the central importance in Islam of the concept of al-fikr kufr, the idea that the very act of thinking (fikr) makes one become an infidel (kufr)* (In Arabic both words are derived from the same three root letters but have different meanings.)
"He told me, "Your brain is just like a donkey [a symbol of inferiority in the Arab culture] that can get you only to the palace door of the king [Allah]. *To enter the palace once you have reached the door, you should leave the donkey [your inferior mind] outside*."
'By this parable, Muchtar meant that a truly dedicated Muslim no longer thinks but automatically obeys the teachings of Islam."
'The very act of thinking FKR makes one become an infidel KFR'
'a truly dedicated Muslim no longer thinks'.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1200475901923&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
note to Hugh. ditto what Sword of Damocles said. i'm following u also but can't find any of your posts. thanx!
The strangest people on the bus to Islamistan are those disgruntled Christian ex-pastors who discover to their great dismay that the Bible is not the perfect book they thought it to be. Rather than use the experience to grow in their faith, they continue their search for the perfect book and learn it is the Quran.
Whether it be warnings from Orwell or Ayn Rand, the message is the same. The seduction of being "taken care of" by authority figures, while simultaneously not having to be responsible for your own decisions, is too powerful for most people. The price one pays for sacrificing one's soul and being to corrupt monsters for a false sense of security apparently seems to be worth it.Adults wanting to remain children -and pathetic ones at that- is what islam is about, along with all of the other demagogic religious/political organized groups. After writer/prosecuting attorney, Victor Bugliosi finished his eye-opening book about Manson and his followers,"Helter Skelter", he added some quotes from American parents. One of the parents said (paraphrase) that what was more disturbing than the answer to "what could have produced a mind like Manson's", was what was in the minds of his followers. Same here, concerning islam and all authoritarian groups.